Blood and Retribution
by Moon Child97
Summary: What happened to Leo during the second year in the jungle? In the aftermath, what if he was only pretending to be strong on the outside, but on the inside was broken and defeated? How would his brothers handle the new darkness that is within their Leader? Will the darkness ever leave...or will the shadows destroy Leo...from the inside out?


**Disclaimer: I don't own TMNT, I just own my OCs that will be introduced in later chapters. If I did...oh the fun I would have with it. :D**

**Fanfic: TMNT (2003 version/2007 movie)**

**Title: Blood and Retribution**

**Rating: M (For gore and swearing in later chapters)**

Prologue- Hunted

_She ran for her life._

_There was no other way to describe it. If they caught her, she would be killed...or worse. She ran, stumbling over roots and rocks, sometimes falling foward into the watery mud that was a result of the dirt and the rain that poured down in the jungle, but never stopped. Her heart felt as if it was going to burst from her chest, her lungs protesting with every sliver of air she managed to pull from the enviroment around her. She beat away the leaves and branches that sliced her skin open, leaving thin bloody trails behind. Rain ran into her eyes, clouding her vision, but she didn't try to wipe them away. _

_She could still hear them behind her. _

_The sound of their dogs barking made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up with fear, but she kept going. Her bare feet pounded the ground, also bloody from her three consecutive hours of running with stopping. 'Someone...please...help me!' she thought, but she could sense no one except the hunters in the three mile radius she was able to probe for other people. _

_After all, her "gifts" were the reasons she was being hunted in the first place. _

_She cursed whatever deity had given her these powers that plagued her day and night. If she hadn't been born with them, then perhaps she could have just been a regular teenage girl with a family that loved and protected her..._

_Instead, she was running for her life through this god-forsaken jungle in South America. _

_She turned her head, shaking off the bitter thoughts that clouded her mind, to see if she could still see the flames from the lanterns of the hunters. _

_What a mistake._

_She screamed in surprise as the ground disappeared from under her feet. She continued to scream as she tumbled end over end in the darkness, her body being continously struck several times until the pain was overwhelming and her mind was in complete shock. After what seemed like an eternity, she landed on her side, wheezing and gasping. The fall had knocked the wind right out of her. She tried to get up and failed, landing once again in the mud._

_A cliff. She had fallen off a damn cliff._

_She groaned and attempted to rise again, but a sharp pain in her side made her bite back a scream of agony. She ran her hand down her side and when she brought it up to see what was this strange liquid, a flash of lightning illuminated the jungle for a brief second...but she had already seen what it was._

_Blood._

_She cursed mentally and pressed her hand to her side, managing this time to get to her feet unsteadily, biting her lip hard enough to draw the metallic-tasting liquid on to her tongue. She took a step and felt woozy, but nevertheless began to hobble, a pit of despair beginning to rise inside of her. Her chance of escaping had vanished as soon as she had taken that tremendous tumble off the cliff. They would find her and put her back in that cell...this time, there would be no leaving alive. _

_She whimpered as the pain got to be too much for her to bear for another second, and with that, she fell to her knees, and then to her unwounded side, curling into a fetal position in the mud that soothed her broken body. Nothing could save her now...except death itself. She groaned softly, her eyes closing as she felt the rain soak into the rags she wore, long past being clothes, the chill seeping into her bones...her very soul. She lifted her eyes to the sky, hidden behind storm clouds of grey, and decided to take a chance._

_After all, her powers had brought nothing but destruction._

_But could they bring salvation as well? _

_Not even she knew the answer._

_Her arm shaking with the effort, she lifted her hand from the mud and reached for the sky, palm up, and managed one last burst of power to come from her body. If anyone saw it, then there would only be three fates for her. _

_One could be that someone, her saviour in the darkest hour of her life, would come and rescue her. _

_Two could be that the evil that she had been running from found her instead, and enslaved her for the rest of her life._

_Three could be that no one would find her here...and she would die alone, in the mud, with no one to mourn her except the moaning trees, the howling wind, and the roaring storm. _

_With the last shred of her energy, she aimed her palm towards the sky...and released a bolt of pink lightning into the sky. Another bolt, this one from the clouds, was white and deadly, crashed in midair with hers, resulting in a blast so powerful that it shook the ground like an earthquake. She let her arm slump back down into the mud, and let out a small sigh. That was it. The last shred of her power had been used. Now all she could do...was wait._

_She closed her eyes and let her mind drift off into darkness for an immersurable amount of time, tears sliding down her cheeks and onto the mud as she remembered her sisters. 'Isra...Xylina...Oriane...please be safe,' she thought, shivering as a wind racked her battered body. _

_And then, the sound of a breaking branch jolted her awake._

_She searched the area that she could see with wide violet eyes, terror filling her anew. Was it Raoul, ready to shoot her for daring to evade his men and his hunting dogs? Or was it someone else? Hope, bright and dark at the same time, began to burn in her chest, and she reached out with her weak arm and pleaded with the dark jungle...and whoever was in it. "Please...por favor...help me," she called weakly, her eyes scanning the jungle as best she could in the darkness. She bit her lip and repeated her pleas, in english and spanish, and then she saw it._

_A person, illuminated by a flash of lightning, was slowly coming towards her. Or at least...it looked like a person. The figure was clothed in a long tattered cloak, the hood obscuring their face, leaving a gaping hole behind. She swallowed and rested her head on the mud again, feeling the strain of hope and fear take it's toll on her spirit and body. But she held off the urge to pass out from pain and exhaustion. She would not fall into darkness...not when she was so close to being saved. The figure stopped in front of her...and she looked up at them, smiling weakly. It may have been her mind playing tricks on her, but she could swear that the figure had green skin..._

_The figure leaned down, and without a word, lifted her up from the mud with arms that tightened around her broken frame, holding her close to the figure's warmth. She rested her head against the figure's chest and whispered, "Gracias...thank you...my savior..," as her eyes fluttered shut. For some reason, she trusted whomever had just saved her without a second thought, certain that this person...was kind and good. As these thoughts traversed through her weary mind, she managed to look up just as another bolt of white lightning flashed across the sky, throwing the shadows that cloaked the figure's face away like a tissue in a windstorm. If she had any energy left to gasp, she would have._

_Because the face of her rescuer was that of a masked turtle. _

_Mahogany eyes met hers for the briefest of moments, widening in synchronization with her own. The figure opened it mouth and words began to pour out, but she couldn't hear them. It was as if the figure was hundreds of miles away, and the sounds were hollow and muted. Her eyes began to flutter shut, and as the last of her strength was depleted, she fell into the darkness of her mind...into the warm embrace of unconsciousness. _

_-Chapter 1: End- _

**Alright, Moon Child97 here. :D**

**So everyone, how did I do? Intriguing enough? I hope so! **

**As a message to anyone and everyone who read the beginning of this fanfic, I'd be much obliged if you review and tell me what you liked (or didn't like) about this chapter. Your reviews and opinions are very imporant to me, so don't hesitate to give me your advice or concerns. **

**And because I love to shamelessly advertise myself: PLEASE READ MY OTHER FANFICTIONS IF YOU HAVE THE TIME OR INCLINATION! I BEG YOU!**

**-Coughs, regains composure-**

**Anyways, thank you for reading the first chapter in my fanfic, and I hope you readers will be nice enough to favorite/follow/review? Please? **

**Until we meet again in the next Chapter 2: The Ghost**


End file.
